There is an ongoing debate on if President Trump wants to be a dictator. Let’s take a look at these claims but to understand what we are talking about we need to understand the difference between autocracies (dictatorships) and democracies.

There are four main parts to this episode. Part one talks about characteristics of democracies. Part two details types of autocracies and characteristics of dictators. Part three analyzes claims of democratic backsliding in the U.S. with examples. The final part is my analysis on if President Trump will become a dictator.

Sources:

• Characteristics of Personalist Dictators
• Lukashenko winning another election
• GDP of MENA Countries
• Egypt President Morsi taken into custody – NYT
• History of the Kim Dynasty
• The Rise of Personalist Rule – Brookings
• Putin in Power – BBC
• Committee for Protecting Journalists
• Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali
• Mohammed Morsi’s trials and convictions – BBC
• Muammar Gaddafi death – Human Rights Watch
• Congressional visits to ICE detention centers
• DHS on Congress members visiting ICE detention centers
• Claims of poor conditions in Delaney Hall – NYT
• McIver indicted by grand jury – ABC
• Trump AI Star Wars photo – Instagram
• Trump Superman poster – Instagram
• Trump’s comment about “sitting up at attention” like North Korea – Politico
• Trump and appointing family to positions in the government – The Hill
• Trumps frequency of intelligence briefings – Politico
• About the Department of Education
• Number of executive orders by president
• Number of executive orders by president #2
• “Drain the Swamp” metaphor history
• Thom Tillis and the death of moderate politics – Politico
• Trump and claims about Haitian immigrants – BBC
• Impact of claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH – PBS
• Contribution to U.S. economy by immigrants – Center for Migration Studies
• Unpaid campaign bills by Trump campaign – CBS
• European perspective on Trump being a dictator – Politico
• U.S. Supreme Court decision on Department of Education layoffs